Why Peru Accepts Wrong Kind of Aid

Published: October 9, 1991

To the Editor:

In "Peru's President -- A Good Bet" (editorial, Sept. 28), you cynically misrepresent the Bush Administration's latest bribe to Peru as "aid." In the last few months, your news columns have documented the negotiations between the United States and Peru that led to President Alberto Fujimori's eventual surrender to White House "diplomacy."

Mr. Fujimori at first rejected the Bush "aid" proposal as dangerously militaristic and blind to the economic realities underlying coca production in eastern Peru. The proposed package contains no serious alternative development strategies, nor does it offer sustained support for development of alternative cash crops.

Peruvians are concerned that brutal military suppression of the only viable peasant economy in the region will merely sharpen their nation's crisis, sweeping it into a vicious cycle of violence and guaranteeing the need for more such United States "aid" as Peru sinks into civil war.

The Bush Administration responded to Mr. Fujimori's rejection by threatening to curtail aid from the international lending institutions Washington controls. Mr. Fujimori reluctantly agreed to accept the United States package, rather than face economic isolation.

You attempt to gloss over the sad facts of this "aid" package. Of the $60 million in economic aid you refer to, almost all will go toward interest on outstanding loans, not crop substitution or road building in rural Peru. The meager amount for economic development is all Mr. Fujimori can show to save face and not be laughed out of his country as another incompetent weakling pandering to the interests of Washington and the banks.

Finally, to portray the Peruvians as the deserving recipients of "poison" disguised as "medicine" is a callous ruse. KURT DILLON New York, Oct. 1, 1991